DESCRIPTION: Applicant's Abstract Drug abuse cannot be explained merely as a result of reward provided by increasing dopamine efflux in the nucleus accumbens. Other neurobehavioral systems such as neurocognitive function play important roles in the development and consequence of drug abuse. Drugs of abuse the have been shown to have robust effects on attentional processes. Attentional effects are important not only for understanding negative outcomes of drug abuse, but also for understanding the reasons why people take these drugs and basic mechanisms of addiction. The Behavioral Toxicology Society would like to conduct a symposium within its annual meeting May 1-2, 1999 in Research Triangle Park, NC entitled "Attention as a Target of Intoxication: Insights and Methods from Studies of Drug Abuse." This symposium will bring together leaders in the field to discuss both methods for assessing attention in rodents, non-human primates and humans, as well as latest results concerning the interactions of drugs of abuse and attentional processes. The first session of the symposium will focus on methodological and theoretical issues concerning attentional assessment in rodents. This will take place in the context of the negative effects of intoxication on attentional function. Dr. Strupp will address the persistent negative attentional effects of prenatal cocaine exposure in rats. Dr. Bushnell will address the adverse attentional effects of current exposure to solvent inhalation and benzodiazepines. Dr. Sarter will discuss the role of the basal forebrain in the effects of drugs of abuse on attention. The second session will focus on a single drug nicotine, addressing issues of interspecies extrapolation in Dr. Marrocco's talk, self-medication in Dr. Levin's talk and the interaction of effects on attention and arousal in Dr. Wartburton's talk. These methodological and theoretical issues will be integrated in the context of each talk as well as in a discussion session at the end of the symposium. This symposium will provide the latest information concerning techniques of attentional assessment and the effects of drugs of abuse to an audience of research scientists in the field of behavioral toxicology. Bringing these methods and the intellectual resources of the scientists in this field to study attention and drug abuse will considerably advance the scope of understanding of the neurobehavioral basis and consequences of drug addiction.